Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-05-03
RuIMcr.S Wife

There has Just been issued in London
says the Philadelphia Telegraph, u book OF
painful interest.
1t is the Life Of Rosina, Lady Lytton
Published in Vindication of Her Memory"
The biographer is Her Ladyship's literary
executor, Miss Louisa Dewey. Miss Wheeler
fist met Bulwer at the house of Miss
Benger, in 1925. He had just returned
from Paris, ard was Respondent with
French polish, SO far as boots went. His
co6web cambria shirt front was q triumph
of lace and embroidery, a combination never
seen in this country till six or seven years
later. except on babies frocks. Studs. too,
except in racing stables, were then non est;
but perfect galaxy glittered along the
milky way down the centre of this fairylike
lingerie. His hair, which was really golden,
glitteringly golden and abundant, he wore
literally in long ringlets that almost reached
his shoulders" Miss Wheeler did not fall
so deeply in love with BulWer as he appar-
emily did with her. The end OF it was that
after Miss Wheeler had twice refused him,
they were married in August, 1927.
The first incident of the married life oC-
Cured about ten months after the wedding,
NEARLY month before the birth of her
daughter" Mrs. Bulwer was in the con-
stant habit of assisting her husband as much
as possible in his literary labors, and on
bat occasion had been helping him by
getting down books from the library shelves.
Worn out and exhausted one evening she
had lain down on the sofa, when her lord
and master ordered her 10 hand down an
other volume and for that purpose TO mount
q step ladder Really, Edward" she said.
II cannot do more. | am so tired" In q
sudden fit of fury he sprang TO his feet and
kicked her in the side with such savage yio-
lence that she tainted from the pain. When
the baby was born he put it out to nurse,
"lest it should interfere with his domestic
arrangements. In his elegant phraseology,
ne declined to allow his wife's time ito be
taken up by any id child" Mrs. Bull
wer's maid ut this time and down to 1915,
was a Miss Byrne, and deposition of hers
is printed in which it is stated that Bulwer,
'in one of his brutal RACES. kicked and
banged her iaGyship about the stone floor
till she was black and blue = and further,
that on one occasion while they were dining
together 'he seized a carving knife and
rushed at mis- wife. when she cried out, For
Gods sake, Edward, take care what you
are about = when he dropped the knife, and
springing on her like tiger, made his teeth
meet in her left cheek" 1t does not appear
that Miss Byrne, or indeed, anyone except
Brlwer and his wife, were present when
this happened, and the story rests, there
fore. upon the evidence OF Mrs. Bulwer her.
self
1t is impossible to give in few words an
idea of the bitterness which subsisted be-
tween the husband and wife. She calls him
''Sir Liar that fiend," and so on.
In 1857 she published her appeal to the
Justice and Charity Of the English people,
which brought her little money, though
insufficient even to pay her debts She
writes that, ''she hopes soon to have nice
long drive in her hearse," that she is with.
out literally a penny piece in the world"
that she sis nearly mad from total want OF
sleep"
The next incident Of Importance is Lady
Lytton's sudden appearance on the hustings
at Hertford, where her husband was can
didate. "Sir Liars head fell literally as if
he had been shot; he staggered against the
most. and seemed not to have strength to
move. then said, in loud, calm and
stern voice, Sir Edward George Earle Bull
wer Lytton. as am not in the habit of stab.
biDg in the back, it is to you, in the first in
stance, that I address myself" =. Sir
Liar, with his hands before his face, made
rush from the hustings. The mob began to
hiss and cry, All, coward he's guilty; ne
dare not face her, Sir Edward, we are
told, now "lost no time in resorting to the
desperate expedient Of incarcerating MS
wife in unatic asylum" Sir Edward was
Colonial Secretary under Lord Derby, and
the hubub raised about his wife's incarcera-
ton was so great that she had to be set at
liberty